Relentless
Response
S.
Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On December
27, 2017, Kohinur Rahman aka Ketu (43), a ‘regional
leader’ of Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP),
was killed in a 'gunfight' with Police in Sadar upazila
(sub-District) of Chuadanga District. Five Policemen were
also injured in the incident. Police recovered one revolver,
six bullets, six crude bombs and six knives from the spot.
On November
28, 2017, three Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
terrorists were killed in a raid at their hideout at Char
Alatuli in Chapainawabganj District. Three Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs), seven detonators, 12 packs of
explosive gel and two pistols were recovered from the
spot.
On November
28, 2017, Abbas Sardar aka Khokon (48), a cadre
of Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (PBSP), was killed in
a shootout with Police in Rajbari District’s Beninagar
village. Police recovered one rifle, another firearm and
five rounds of ammunition from the scene.
On September
6, 2017, remains of seven dead bodies were recovered from
a JMB hideout in the capital Dhaka city’s Darus Salam
area after the terrorists blew themselves up, ignoring
the Rapid Action Battalion’s (RAB’s) repeated calls to
surrender. A large quantity of bombs and bomb making materials,
including 24 high-impact explosive devices, 60 improvised
hand grenades, 70 chemical bombs, 15 kilograms (kgs) of
splinters, nine empty cages, 20 kilograms of charcoal,
and 1,500 pieces of igniting cord were also recovered
from the area.
On August
25, 2017, a Neo-Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB)
militant was killed in a gunfight with the Police in Boalia
village of Kushtia District. Police recovered a foreign
pistol, two bullets and three sharp weapons from the spot.
Sheikh
Hasina Wazed’s Awami League (AL)-led Government, which
retained power winning the 10th
General Elections held on January
5, 2014, has enormously consolidated its secular commitments
through 2017, reining in Islamist extremist groups and
targeting the Left Wing Extremist (LWE) movement in the
country. According to partial data compiled by the South
Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 52 Islamist terrorists were
killed and another 905 arrested including 569 cadres of
Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS),
166 of JMB, 126 of Neo-JMB, 19 of Ansar al-Islam, 12 of
Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), five each of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al
Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B)
and Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), two of Jamaat-e-Taliban and
one of Allah’r Dal across Bangladesh in different raids
in 2017. Prominent among those killed were the Neo-JMB
‘operational commander’ Nurul Islam Marzan (28), JMB ‘regional
coordinator’ Abu Musa aka Abujar aka Abu
Talha aka Robin aka Samiul (32), Neo-JMB
‘military chief’ Aminur Islam aka Alam (23), HuJI-B
‘chief’ Mufti Abdul Hannan and HuJI-B ‘regional commander’
Tajul Islam Mahmud aka Mama Hujur (46). By comparison,
74 Islamist terrorists were killed in 2016 and 31 in 2015.
Dhaka has
also continued its campaign against the LWE movement.
15 LWE-linked fatalities were recorded, all of terrorists,
in 2017. These included five PBCP ‘regional leaders’,
Abdur Razzak (42), Jony Molla (31), Rakibul Hasan ‘Roky’
aka Bappi (35), Maidul Islam Rana (38) and Kohinur
Rahman aka Ketu (43); two PBSP ‘regional
leaders’ Kubad Ali Sikder aka Kubad (40) and Nistar
aka Jahid aka Nizam (40); two PBCP ‘local
leaders’ Oltu Mondol (40) and Korom Ali (36); four PBCP
cadres Bidyut Bachhar (46), Sheikh Abu Talha (22), Alim
Uddin (46) and Lalon Mollah (40); and two PBSP cadres
Moazzem Fakir (32) and Abbas Sardar aka Khokon
(48). Similarly, there were 18 LWE fatalities, all of
terrorists in 2016; and 17, all of terrorists, in 2015.
Meanwhile, a total of five LW extremists including PBCP
‘operational commander’ Mohamad Dulla Sheikh alias
Shamim (25) and two cadres each of PBCP and PBSP were
arrested through 2017. There were 14 such arrests in 2016
and 10 in 2015.
Meanwhile,
the War
Crimes (WC) Trials, which began on
March 25, 2010, has thus far indicted 89 leaders, including
44 from Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI);16 from the Muslim League
(ML); five from Nezam-e-Islami (NeI); four from Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP); two each from the Jatiya Party
(JP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); 15 former Razakars
(a prominent pro-Pakistan militia); and one former Al-Badr
member. Verdicts have been delivered against 59 accused,
including 37 death penalties and 22 life sentences. So
far, six of the 37 people who were awarded the death sentence
have been hanged;
18 are absconding and another 13 cases are currently pending
with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile,
out of 22 persons who were awarded life sentences, four
persons have already died serving their sentence; 11 are
absconding and another seven are lodged in various jails
of the country. Significantly, on March 11, 2017, Parliament
unanimously adopted a resolution to observe March 25 as
‘Genocide Day’, marking the brutality carried out by the
Pakistani Army and its collaborators on unarmed Bengalis
on the black night of March 25, 1971. On the night of
March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army launched ‘Operation
Searchlight’ and an estimated 7,000 people were killed
and 3,000 arrested in a single night. Further, referring
to the horrors of March 25, 1971, Bangladesh Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina, during her speech at the 72nd session of
the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September
22, 2017, stated, “I call upon the international community
to take collective steps to ensure that such crimes are
never committed at any time in the world. I believe, international
recognition of all historical tragedies including the
genocide of 1971 will play an important role in achieving
our goal.”
A new security
dilemma for Bangladesh in 2017 was the problem created
by the Rohingya
refugees from the Rakhine State of
Myanmar. A new wave of refugees swept in after the incident
of August 25, 2017, in which hundreds of Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents armed with machetes and
rifles attacked 30 security posts in the Rakhine State
of Myanmar, killing 12 Policemen, a soldier and an immigration
officer. In response, the military unleashed what it called
"clearance operations" to root out the insurgents.
On December 24, 2017, the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) disclosed that in four months since the
start of the influx of Rohingyas, 655,000 people had arrived
in Bangladesh, bringing the estimated total number of
Rohingyas in the country to 867,500.
Disturbingly,
terrorist outfits both at home and abroad tried to cash
in on the Rohingya crisis. On September 3, 2017, in a
video message released by al Qaeda’s al-Malahem Media
Foundation, Khaled Batarfi called on Muslims in Bangladesh,
India, Indonesia and Malaysia to support their Rohingya
Muslim brethren against the “enemies of Allah.” Similarly,
on September 12, 2017, Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM)
Chief Maulana Masood Azhar declared, “All of us must do
whatever we can for the Myanmar Muslims. Just say your
prayers and get up to help them. You don’t need to show
off what you are doing: just do it, and never stop."
On the home front, an intelligence report on November
26, 2017, noted: “The Hizb-ut Tahrir members are committing
transgressions by using the excuse of helping the displaced
and oppressed Rohingyas. They are trying to bolster their
organization and bag more support from the masses by exploiting
their emotion over the Rohingya crisis.” Meanwhile, on
December 19, 2017, RAB arrested two Neo-JMB terrorists
from Dhaka city's Saidabad area. Later, on December 21,
2017, RAB identified the arrestees as Neo-JMB amir
(chief) Mohamad Mizanur Rahman (37) and his associate
Ibrahim Khalil (30), and revealed that Mizanur Rahman
married a Rohingya woman to spread militancy among the
displaced Myanmar nationals staying in Bangladesh. On
December 19, 2017, Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul
Haq Inu warned that the influx of Rohingya refugees to
Bangladesh could fuel terrorism and the movement of illegal
drugs.
On November
23, 2017, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement for
the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled
to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine
State. The development came one day after U.S. Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson, in a written statement, declared,
"After a careful and thorough analysis of available
facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine
state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya."
Earlier, United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, while addressing the United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on September 11,
2017, slammed Myanmar for conducting a “cruel military
operation” against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state,
branding it “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
As per the agreement signed between Dhaka and Naypyidaw
on November 23, 2017, the repatriation process must start
within two months of its signing, that is, from January
22, 2017. However, it could not be known how many Rohingyas
will be repatriated in the first phase as the Joint Working
Group (JWG) is yet to complete the physical arrangements.
To expand
its unremitting
effort against terrorist formations
in Bangladesh, the Government approved a full-fledged
Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) with a nationwide jurisdiction
to combat militancy and terrorism, on September 20, 2017.
Further, on October 25, 2017, to address the controversy
regarding the madrasa education system, the Government
directed the Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board to remove
the chapters on jihad. New textbooks of the Bangladesh
Madrasa Education Board will not contain any chapters
with lessons on jihad, for the first time in nearly
four decades. The Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board,
also known as the Alia Madrasa Education Board, is one
of three types of madrasa education systems in
Bangladesh, along with the Qawmi and Hifz madrasas.
Since the inception of the Board in 1979, chapters on
jihad were included in madrasa textbooks
from class VIII to the degree level. Jihad was defined
in madrasa textbooks as a “struggle or fight against
the enemies of Islam”.
In a startling
revelation at the meeting of the National Committee on
Militancy Resistance and Prevention (NCMRP) in Dhaka on
September 4, 2017, members from security agencies disclosed
that 440 persons accused in 331 terrorism related cases
had fled the country after getting bail. Frustratingly,
an official of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter
Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, seeking
anonymity, noted, “We work tirelessly for months to put
these terrorists behind bars and then all that hard work
goes down the drain when they are granted bail and flee
the country. Once they are out, these terrorists either
go into hiding or start their terrorist activities all
over again. If this keeps happening, we cannot stop militancy
in Bangladesh.” According to different law enforcement
agencies, more than 200 suspected terrorists are out on
bail since January 2017. Most of these are members of
Neo-JMB, old JMB, Ansar al-Islam, HuJI-B and HuT. It is
usually the delay in investigation and legal proceedings
that allow terrorists to take advantage of the system.
In another
revelation, on October 1, 2017, ATU officials disclosed
that terrorist outfits have apparently smartened up and
become tech-savvy, and are increasingly using encrypted
communications applications (apps) to maintain communications
online, making it harder for law enforcement agencies
to trace them. They noted that terrorists initially used
popular apps like Facebook and its Messenger, and Google
Hangouts to communicate, but had recently begun shifting
to encrypted messaging apps such as Threema, Telegram
and Wickr to maintain secrecy. Terrorists also use WhatsApp,
Viber, Tango, Hike and several other similar apps, as
most of them also have the encryption facility, but they
are rapidly switching platforms to avoid detection. In
the future, they are likely to also use the more advanced
Silent Circle, Signal, Chat Secure, OS Tel or Red Phone,
which are more privacy-conscious. If they do this, tracing
their secret and online networks will prove even more
challenging.
On June
28, 2017, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told Parliament
“Our Government has always taken stern action against
terrorism and militancy and would continue to curb the
twin demons with an iron hand. There would be no place
of terrorism and militancy on the soil of Bangladesh.”
Further, on October 30, 2017, Home Minister Asaduzzaman
Khan Kamal observed, “We maintain zero tolerance for terrorism
and militancy. Since the Holey Artisan café attack, we
carried out aggressive operations against the terrorists
across the country to save the people. We have broken
their backbone. They are no more a threat.”
Bangladesh
has taken giant strides to root out terrorism after the
country suffered its worst
terrorist attack on July 1, 2016.
Dhaka has demonstrated the efficacy of determined and
relentless action against terrorist formations through
2017. By bringing the perpetrators of war crimes to justice,
Dhaka has also succeeded in minimizing the threat of Islamist
extremists within the country, both because they have
become conscious of the clear intent of the incumbent
Government, and because many of their top leaders are
among those arraigned or convicted for the War Crimes.
However, as terrorists adapt, exploit new technologies
and new tactics, the challenge is kept alive. Moreover,
the scope for a coalition of terrorists with the radicalized
elements among the Rohingyas, who have been forced across
the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, could create new headaches
for authorities. Bangladesh’s “war on terror” is unlikely
to end soon.
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